Elementwise sub-representations of groups, and their automorphic analogue

Suppose V and W are two finite dimensional representations of a group G such that for each element g of G, the eigenvalues of g (counted with multiplicity) on V are contained in the eigenvalues of g on W. What can we say about V and W? Such a question appears naturally in Automorphic representations which we will briefly discuss, but then focus on the abstract question on group representations.